DVD Reviews

Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated: Season One, Vol. 1 – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 19, 2011, 14:43 GMT

Hop in the van for Mystery Inc.\'s new, cool series of spooky capers. Like, it\'s an all-new Scooby-Doo TV series for families who want their mysteries like Scooby-Doo and Shaggy want their pizza ... spicy with extra sauce! Join the gang in Crystal Cove--the most haunted place on Earth--to solve creepy cases packed with fearsome spooks and frights, exciting chases, terrifying surprises and of course, Freddy\'s ingenious traps. But the ...more

Scooby Doo gets a rebooted stylish gloss with this re-imagining of the classic series.  There’s much to recall the old show, which seems to have been on the air in some incarnation forever now, and some new tricks too.

Fred (Frank Welker), Velma (Mindy Cohn), Daphne (Grey DeLise), Shaggy (Matthew Lilliard), and their dog Scooby (Welker again) are a group of meddlesome kids that solve the mysteries of the town of Crystal Cove.

Their meddling should be appreciated by the townfolk, but it seems that they’ve invested in the “most hauntedest place on Earth” moniker that the town has.  Fred’s dad Mayor Jones (Gary Cole) and Sheriff Stone (Patrick Warburton) aren’t too happy with their mystery solving abilities. 

The gang does get occasional assistance from DJ Angel Dynamite (Vivica A. Fox) and they also are getting hints from the mysterious Mr. E (Lewis Black) that there’s a deeper enigma behind the town. 

The gang first encounters the mystery of a slime monster from the newly discovered caves beneath Crystal Cove (Beware the Beast from Below).  Next they journey to nearby Gatorburg and find some monstrous alligator people (The Creeping Creatures). 

Thirdly, they tackle the mystery of the ghostly eighteen-wheeler and the disappearance of crystal doorknobs in town (Secret of the Ghost Rig).  Finally, the town’s volleyball tournament is in jeopardy when a giant crab creature is kidnapping players (Revenge of the Man Crab). 

Mystery Incorporated is the eleventh incarnation of the Scooby gang.  The gang has been given a new stylized look but it also has a retro feel to the show.  They’re done in an anime style that gives them a modern feel.  There are also enough in-jokes and humor to please all ages – new kids to the show but also the series fans. 

The voice cast is pulled from more recent incarnations, but they do get Casey Kasem, the original Shaggy, to voice Shaggy’s dad.  Our resident Scooby fan, my three-year-old, heartily approved (we’ve watched Camp Scary twenty or so times on Netflix, it’s on as I’m typing this up) but I don’t enjoy the voluming of series.  It’s going to be doled out in volumes and might get a complete series set one day. 

I do like the show and that it’s hip enough to entertain me as well as my three-year-old (he still seems to prefer Camp Scary).  What I didn’t like is that I’ll need to wait for at least three more volumes to come out for all to be revealed.

Scooby Doo is presented in widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  The only special feature is a group of trailers for other Warner Brothers products. 

Mystery Incorporated successfully redoes the Scooby Doo franchise for kids of all ages.  I’m not sure that I like that the show will be dribbled out in volumes onto DVD but I can say that I liked the episodes that appeared on volume one. 

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